Flying into Focus: In process

About the Process

Paintings as you know, have their own quirks and personalities, they are characters with their own souls and heartbeats – I make a point of listening to what they have to say and drawing out the story – if anything I use paints to sculpt their being on canvas.

This one is currently in process. It’s actually a bit of a troublemaker. You see, I was happily painting away on my flight to Toronto for my first festival as a filmmaker. Planet In Focus is an amazing festival and we were supremely honoured to be a part of their short film line-up. I was tuning into how it felt to be a travelling artist and to be exhibiting my work. La La Land was playing and I had tapped into some Chameleon Circuit (it’s a Doctor Who thing). And suddenly my pen exploded. Mwah!!

It’s a bit funny now, but thank goodness alcohol wipes can clean up paint pen. I’ve never had such a thing happen, in all my traveling and creating. So it was a bit of a shock. It’s changed which pens I use, and which ones I take on flights now. But I did almost have a light blue covered heart attack.

The initial painting was just a fragment of an idea when I put it away, and since we’re flying to San Fransisco on Thursday for my next film festival (w00t!), it seemed like a good time to revisit this particular piece.

With a bit of time and distance, I definitely see underlying stories here. I can see how flying to an environmental film festival and continually researching and looking at how we impact our planet, as well as having the overview of the world below me in the plane as I painted came together on the canvas. So on a second pass, what came through was an overall impression of looking down on a city, but as a non-human – seeing all of the buildings and roads that are made by tearing into the planet for materials. How our cities map the path of our energy flow, are a kind of nervous system, and that they are also sometimes like raw wounds on our planet’s surface. I’m not anti city, but there are so many ways to grow and evolve our thinking – and in some ways a total mental reboot might be needed.

There’s at least one more painting day needed, and I’ll come back to this another day. But for now, enjoy the playlist, and current state of the painting, and I’ll see you in San Fransisco!

Statement:

I love film festivals! Whether I’m working as a photographer, or as a cinematographer, they are amazing points in time and space. Admittedly, being a filmmaker is pretty awesome tho. 🙂

To infinity and beyond!

Rayne

Painting in flight between Victoria, BC and Toronto, ON

With finishing touches in Victoria, BC.

For the flight: Songs are in the listening order used while painting. For this project I randomized the music and stuck with songs that resonated – no pre-selection. I saved the songs, and then for all revisiting and touch-ups, am using the same playlist.

Colour chart

Silver

Light Blue

Yellow

Spring/Light Green

Dark Blue

Bright Coral

Red/Orange

Dark Green

Sky Blue

Purple

Playlist

Rain, Rain Rain, Shari Ulrich

Travelling Man, Chameleon Circuit

Everything is Ending, Chameleon Circuit

Another Day of Sun, La La Land Cast

Someone In The Crowd, La La Land Cast

A Lovely Night, La La Land Cast

Not With Haste, Mumford and Sons

**Note: I was watching/doodling to the first part of the La La Land Movie on the plane.

Oracle of Music

I use the music like a mantra and focusing tool – and will listen to the same song until it puts me into an altered state.

I’ve included the spotify playlist. Part of the process in this case was tuning into the first part of La La Land during the flight.

Painted in the air between Victoria BC and Toronto ON, Canada (on route to Planet in Focus)